Train Less & Develop Bigger Muscles

progress by "doing nothing"

Once you understand how to adjust your personal training frequency, your results will soar. Here's an example of what happened for a very tough-minded client of mine named Stanley.

After we discussed his training and lack of progress — particularly in the barbell shrug exercise — I told Stanley to take three weeks off from all training. He said there was no way he could stay out of the gym that long. Actually, this is a common problem with serious bodybuilders.

Psychologically, when you want to make progress, it is very difficult to do what seems like "nothing." Not training feels like throwing in the towel or admitting defeat in some way. But the truth is your body needs time to recover. Time off is not wasted time; it's time that is critical to the growth process. It took a lot of talk to convince Stanley but, to his credit, he took three weeks off from training.

Two months later he called me back with results that will shock you. His strength increased in every area of his body and his shrug power had skyrocketed. His first workout after the layoff was a personal best. Now he's training once every nine days. That's 18 days between workouts for the same body parts because he uses an upper/lower body split. Before this correction in his training frequency, Stanley was training four times in just nine days. Look at the numbers he sent me.

Stanley's Shrug Workout

October 11

November 8

December 17

365 lbs/20 reps

405 lbs/20 reps (easy)

405 lbs/20 reps

400 lbs/20 reps (very tough)

455 lbs/20 reps

505 lbs/20 reps

-

505 lbs/16 reps

600 lbs/12 reps

Notice how the 400 pounds that Stanley had found to be "very tough" basically became his warmup weight in his next two workouts. Furthermore, his heaviest weight went up 100 pounds in his very next workout and another 95 pounds in the one after that.

Stanley did not include his times for lifting, so I don't know his Power Factor or Power Index numbers, but his total shrug weight went from 15,300 pounds per workout to 25,280 — after doing nothing for three weeks. When was the last time you had a three-week period that was that productive?

Think about it. Three weeks of no training whatsoever, nothing but sitting on his butt for three weeks and his progress outpaced everybody he trained with! His training buddies couldn't believe their eyes. There's Stanley, who found it "very tough" to do 20 reps with 400 pounds, now hoisting 505 pounds for 16 reps — after doing 455 pounds for 20 reps! Next time back in the gym, he's playing with 600 pounds. And as far as his bonehead buddies are concerned, he "missed" the previous 20 workouts! That's what I mean when I refer to "training smart."